I dinna believe he speaks gude Latin neither; at least he disna take me up when I tell him the learned names o' the plants." Of Father Vaughan, who divided his time and his ghostly care between Osbaldistone Hall and about half a dozen mansions of Catholic gentlemen in the neighbourhood, I have as yet said nothing, for I had seen but little.

He was aged about sixty--of a good family, as I was given to understand, in the north--of a striking and imposing presence, grave in his exterior, and much respected among the Catholics of Northumberland as a worthy and upright man.

Yet Father Vaughan did not altogether lack those peculiarities which distinguish his order.

There hung about him an air of mystery, which, in Protestant eyes, savoured of priestcraft.

The natives (such they might be well termed) of Osbaldistone Hall looked up to him with much more fear, or at least more awe, than affection.